Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government routinely increases the Local Government budget in-year, including through transfers from other portfolios. The anticipated transfers for 2025-25 are as shown in Table 4.12 of the Scottish Budget and indicate that at least £1,438.3 million of resource and £25 million of capital will be transferred into the General Revenue and General Capital grants at the 2025-26 Autumn or Spring Budget Revisions. Further funding outwith the Local Government Settlement is outlined in Table 4.15 and paid directly by the relevant portfolio.

As with all previous years, any unanticipated transfers in year will also be given effect at the relevant budget revision and processed in the Local Government Finance Order 2026-27.

As outlined in Tables 4.12 and 4.15, it is anticipated that most Scottish Government portfolios will transfer additional funding to Local Government in 2025-26.

In the context of unauthorised work and listed buildings, Historic Environment Scotland’s role is advisory. Historic Environment Scotland has no legal powers in relation to enforcement and listed buildings in general, nor in ensuring that consultation occurs or that the minimum works needed to make a dangerous building safe are carried out. Legal powers related to enforcement and listed buildings lie with the planning authority and, in some circumstances, Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Government did not allocate any separate direct funding for the launch of the MV Glen Rosa. All related costs and resource decisions were made independently by Ferguson Marine.

The Level 4 tables that were published with the draft Budget 2025-26 provide a summary of the changes from the previous year but it is not practical to list the full detail of all the changes associated with the Local Government Settlement, particularly where that detail is already available to the Scottish Parliament.

The specific details of the £1.5 billion of Local Government transfers processed at the Autumn Budget Revision 2024-25 are published in Schedule 3.1 of the Autumn Budget Revision 2024-25: supporting document.

The Finance and Public Administration Committee recommended that the Budget (Scotland) Act 2024 Amendment Regulations 2024, which give effect to the Autumn Budget Revision, should be agreed at their meeting on 12 November 2024. The regulations were subsequently approved by the Scottish Parliament on 4 December 2024.

Initial Teacher Education is fully funded by the Scottish Government, for those students within the controlled subject numbers.

The following table shows funding for publicly funded student places provided by the Scottish Government to providers of Initial Teacher Education and students since 2010-11, based on academic years.

This funding covers tuition fee, student support and teaching grant for activity in addition to the baseline funding provided by Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). The student support element assists students to overcome financial barriers to engaging in higher education.

No specific economic impact assessment has been carried out in relation to closures of the Queensferry Crossing due to the risk of falling ice. A range of estimates exist for the daily impact of the Queensferry Crossing being closed but vary depending on whether the closure is known in advance and there is no clear linear relationship between short and longer closures.

As is customary when Ministers are unable to attend, senior officials represent their nations. As such, Scotland was represented at the Council by Graeme Logan, Director of Learning.

Ernst & Young Parthenon continue to undertake a thorough analysis of viable alternatives for the Grangemouth site with a focus on three levers through which competitive advantage could be driven and these are demand, feedstocks, and infrastructure.

Additionally, the Scottish Government has asked Ernst & Young Parthenon to focus on opportunities that maximise the potential employment and GVA impact of prospective projects, and have been clear that the outputs of Project Willow must align with the contents of the draft Grangemouth Industrial Just Transition Plan.

The information requested is not held centrally. Public Health Scotland conducts HIV surveillance and publishes an annual statistical report, however this does not include data on people living with HIV in Scotland who have a diagnosed mental health condition.

The Scottish Government has made £2,877,287.97 of funding available to local authorities to enable them to cancel school meal debts within their respective local areas. This sum represents the entire amounts bid for by each local authority.

29 local authorities made bids to the Scottish Government’s School Meal Debt Fund and we issued grant offer letters to them on 3 December 2024.

The amounts awarded to each local authority is set out within the following table: